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Letter from: Steve & Sonia Hartman, West Parade, Bexhill on Sea

More people are now becoming aware of the Energy Charter Treaty, which gives the green light to fossil fuel companies to sue governments. Why might they want to? Money! They can sue if the government wants to introduce laws to curb their vast profits. Colombia’s Government banned an open pit mining project that would have harmed the environment and was sued. Slovenia wanted environmental impact tests to be carried out before fracking started which may have affected clean water supplies and was sued.

The UK is still bound by this Treaty. The really scary thing is that it contains a ‘sunset clause’. While countries may withdraw from the treaty, a company can sue up to two decades later for any harm it claims was done before the country withdrew. So you’d think the sensible thing was to withdraw ASAP! And that’s what many countries are doing. France, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia are now all set to leave, with Germany, Belgium and Ireland quite likely to follow. Why, oh why is the UK not moving in this direction too? A cynic might say our law makers favour oil giants over British citizens. Or maybe they’ve just had other things on their minds.

Environmental activists, wearing masks mimicking EU leaders (L/R): EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte, France's President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, pose outside the European Council building in Brussels on July 6, 2021. - Four hundred worldwide civil society organisations have sent an open letter to EU leaders to call on the EU and its member states to exit the threat of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by the UN Climate Summit in November 2021 in Glasgow. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

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Whatever the reason for this delay, it is too dangerous to ignore this peril. We are in a cost of living crisis. We as a country cannot afford to give yet more profits to fossil fuel companies. They have done very well out of the shortage in global fuel supplies and resulting price rises already.

Please urge our MPs, Sally-Ann Hart and Huw Merriman, to support a move to withdraw from this treaty which threatens our and our children’s future.

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The ‘sunset clause’ is the really scary thing about the Energy Charter Treaty, which the Hastings MP should campaign against.